The following computer-generated description may contain errors and does not represent the quality of the book:Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret, there is an amusing anecdote which shows how distinctly the great master realized the importance of the question of the origin of species. The news of the French Revolution of July, 1830, had just reached Weimar and set the whole town in commotion. In the course of the afternoon, says Soret, I went around to Goethes. cNow exclaimed he to me, as I entered, cwhat do you think of this great event? The volcano has come to an eruption; everything is in flames, and we have no longer a transaction with closed doors! cTerrible affair said I, c but what could be expected under such outrageous circumstances, and with such a ministry, otherwise than that the whole would end with the expulsion of the royal family? cMy good friend gravely returned Goethe, c we seem not to understand each other.1 See Introduction, 18. Compare with this chapter the essay I. in Darwinism and Other Essays, on (tDarwinism